January 2014

The preparation of Annual Financial Statements requires the orchestration of a considerable amount of interlinked documentation and the coordination of the work of several people. Achieving that can be an agonisingly complex process, unless using CQS’ CaseWare SmartSync.

That’s become clear for Durban-based accounting, advisory tax and audit practice RSM Betty & Dickson. Partner Jason Howitz says where the company’s employees once manually accessed CaseWare files on a central computer, today SmartSync allows team members to easily access the required information and work on it collaboratively from anywhere.

“In the past we’d experience frustrations with capacity but now SmartSync delivers efficiency and the ability to work away from the office and have access at virtually any time,” he says.

Howitz says the company is experiencing a 15% to 20% recovery on time spent which was never able to be billed to clients. “What’s more, SmartSync is easy to work with, which means our clerks are very impressed with the tool,” he notes.

For example, he says that when conducting a review, the process is considerably more efficient. “SmartSync allows you to review client files remotely and for clerks and management, the efficiency and accessibility when away from the office has proven a great benefit,” Howitz explains.

For all accountants, there are three words which make a great deal of sense: Return on Investment. In this regard, Howitz is unequivocal: “There’s no doubt that we have achieved ROI, especially in the context of the incident where computers were stolen. If we didn’t have the SmartSync backup, the work performed by two partners over a week would have been lost.”

That brings him to his ‘bottom-line’ description of the product – he describes SmartSync in just one word: “Fantastic.”

Challenge

Accessing and working on documents contained in a central computer system was time-consuming and had to be done ‘on site’. This resulted in much wasted time and frustration for clerks and senior management at RSM Betty & Dickson.

Solution

With the implementation of CaseWare SmartSync, workflow is improved by providing easy access to all documentation over an internet connection. Collaboration is enabled, while work done remotely is centrally saved.

Results

Not only does SmartSync enable a substantial gain in efficiency, it also saved the day when computers were stolen. That was thanks to the software’s inherent attribute of backing up changes made on local machines to the centrally-located database.

“In the past we’d experience frustrations with capacity but now SmartSync delivers efficiency and the ability to work away from the office and have access at virtually any time,”